A few hours after skeleton player Kimberley Bos won a historic Olympic medal for the Netherlands at the Winter Games in Beijing, she returned to her apartment. There she sat, alone on her bed in the Olympic village, in the middle of the Chinese night, with a bronze plaque in her hands. “It was very strange, because what do you do? I just started calling people and stuff.”
It was not until back in the Netherlands that Bos noticed how much her performance had sparked. “Then I realized how sympathetic people were in the Netherlands. I was suddenly allowed to be on TV everywhere.” A highlight was the meeting with gymnast Epke Zonderland – an idol of Bos who used to do gymnastics himself. “He asked me if I wanted to take a picture with him. Then I realized that this is something different from winning a World Cup or becoming European champion.”
It has been almost a year since Bos became the first Dutchman to win an Olympic medal in a sledding sport on February 12, 2022. On a track that swung like a flying Chinese dragon, she started badly, but managed to work her way up to third place in four runs. She jumped into the air in the freezing cold of Yanqing, and was immediately awarded her medal next to the ice channel through which she had just hurtled down.
This week, Bos faces her next major tournament. On the natural ice rink of Sankt Moritz in the Swiss Alps, the skeletonists will start their first two runs of the world championship on Thursday. Bos is one of the favorites after her fourth place at the European Championship. She also always had a good time on the natural ice rink in Switzerland. “The descent from Sankt Moritz is very long, more than ten seconds longer than other descents,” says Bos. “You can therefore achieve very high speeds there. The more relaxed you lie on the sled, the more you accelerate. And if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s relaxing on the sled. The intention is that I will reach the highest speed there.”
tax authorities
A lot has changed in the past year, says 29-year-old Bos a few weeks prior to the World Cup. Olympic bronze marked the start of a special period full of honors, a visit to the king and invitations to lectures and travels. She was allowed to go to South Korea for the opening of the Youth Olympic Games, and flew to Greece for a meeting of the International Olympic Committee. She was also invited to tell the Tax and Customs Administration how she deals with expectations and impressions from the outside world. “That is a hot item there, with the Supplementary Affair. There are also people who work there who did not know that they would ever have to defend themselves for their employer at a birthday party.”
Bos didn’t do sledging in that period. After the Games, most of the jobs were closed, and her schedule soon filled up with other things. She only made her first descent again in the fall of 2022, after she had allowed herself her first summer holiday in years. “I think the last time was before the Games in Pyeongchang in 2018. Now I went to England with my boyfriend for a week in a camper.”
Also different was that this year Bos already knew before that summer holiday that she would be able to continue practicing her sport financially for the next four years. “That was nice. I am used to the fact that it usually only comes around in September or October, when the season is about to start.”
The financial picture also came around faster than usual because Bos decided to team up with the Australian Jaclyn Narracott, who took silver at the Games. “In the beginning it was difficult, but it is getting better,” says Bos. “We were both very used to doing everything our own way. Joska [Le Conté, de coach van Bos en nu ook die van Narracott] and I discussed a lot in Dutch, of course Jaclyn didn’t understand that.”
The big advantage is that the two can share information, about how best to get through a certain corner, for example. Bos: “The Germans always have a team of fifteen men with them, they can collect much more information. We can now help each other.”
Still, the Olympic medal resulted in less financial gain for Bos than she had thought. “I still depend on my A status from NOC-NSF.” Bos hoped to find a house for herself this summer with some extra income and her top sports status. But with the high rents and inflation that turned out to be impossible, she still lives with her parents when she is in the Netherlands. “That is a bit frustrating. I would have liked to stand on my own two feet in that area. On the other hand, it is also fine, I traveled so much last year that I was only home for four months in total.”
Since this year, Bos is no longer the only Dutch skeleton player in an international context. You can cautiously speak of a ‘Kimberley effect’ now that eight skeleton runners – six men and two women – have joined since the summer, making their first descents in continental competitions this winter. “They were selected this summer after test days and they get a little better every week,” says Bos, who has acted as a source of information for the novices and regularly provides them with advice via the app. The new skeletonners benefit from the fact that the Bob and Sleebond Netherlands managed to find a sponsor for the first time this summer who wanted to commit to the sport for the entire upcoming Olympic cycle.
“I think skeleton is a sport in which we as the Netherlands, even though we don’t have ice or mountains, can be very good at it if we invest attention and money,” says Bos about her involvement with her successors. She would think it a shame if all the knowledge and skills she has acquired are lost when she stops. That is why Bos is pleased that the plans to set up a new runway at the Papendal sports center are becoming more and more concrete. It should be built this spring, subject to proper permits. “Unfortunately, we haven’t had a runway since 2018, and it would mean a lot to our sport if a new one comes along,” says Bos.
Dutch fans
For example, the sport of skeleton seems to be taking shape in the Netherlands, all thanks to Bos’s one medal in Beijing. “You could certainly say that, but I think it is a bit too much of an honor,” she says with a laugh. “I did not do it alone, without Joska I would never have succeeded.” But it is fun, she says. “I don’t have to explain my sport anymore. People now ask me how fast you are in my sport.” And she saw it during the World Cup in Winterberg, where there were more Dutch people on the track than Germans, all to cheer her on.
Bos wants to continue until the Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2026, she sees enough opportunities to become even better. “I worked hard on my body shape on the sled this year. I can be sloppy sometimes and then you lose a lot aerodynamically. That has gotten much better.”
Most of all she wants to have fun in her sport. Bos: “If you only do it for a goal, then you really don’t go faster. In Beijing I managed to enjoy my runs, and not pay too much attention to the rest. I also succeeded in Winterberg, where I won the World Cup race this year, and I hope that I will succeed again at the World Cup.”
A version of this article also appeared in the January 26, 2023 newspaper
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